Program
Stars, Companions and their Interactions: A Memorial to Robert H. Koch
Note: The attached PDF at the bottom of this page is the conference booklet with the abstracts.
Wednesday, August 10
8:45 Welcome Corcoran, Holenstein
Session I. Interactions Chair: Ed Devinney
9:00 Ed Guinan: The Power of Eclipses: Impacts on the Development of Science - from Binary Stars, Exoplanets, and Cosmology
9:40 Ed Sion: Accreting White Dwarfs in Cataclysmic Binaries
10:20 BREAK
10:50 Al Linnell: BINSYN, a program suite for analysis of binary stars with or without optically thick accretion disks
11:30 Mike Corcoran: Interactions in Massive Colliding Wind Binaries
11:50 Chris Russell: X-ray Modeling of Eta Carinae and WR140 from SPH Simulations
12:10 LUNCH
13:30 Stella Kafka: Interactive Binaries/CVs
14:00 Bruce Hrivnak: Do binaries shape planetary & proto-planetary nebulae?
Session II. Surveys Chair:Tony Hull
14:30 John Bochanski: Low Mass Binaries in the SDSS (INVITED)
15:00 Cullen Blake: Finding Low-Mass EBs in Synoptic Surveys (INVITED)
15:40 Terry Oswalt: Stellar Archeology - What White Dwarf Stars Tell Us about the History of the Galaxy (INVITED)
16:10 BREAK
Session III. Modelling Chair:Ed Guinan
16:40 Bob Wilson: Under-developed and Under-utilized Capabilities in EB Light Curve Modeling (INVITED)
17:20 Ed Devinney: Artificial Intelligence Applications in Eclipsing Binaries
17:50 Dave Bradstreet: Binary Star Research at Eastern University
18:20 ADJOURN
19:30 BANQUET
Presentation/Joanne Koch
Mathieu Ossendrijver: The Sky Over Babylon: Astronomy in the Ancient Near East
Thursday, August 11
Session IV. Evolution Chair Chair: Ed Sion
9:00 Peter Eggleton: Formation and Evolution of Contact Binaries(INVITED)
9:40 Howard Bond: Intermediate-Luminosity Red Transients: Evidence for Catastrophic Binary Mergers? (INVITED)
10:20 BREAK
10:35 Doug Leonard: Seeking the Binary Progenitor(s) of Type Ia Supernovae
11:05 Todd Hillwig: Using Planetary Nebula Central Stars to Study Close Binary Star Evolution
11:35 Phill Read: Mass Transfer and Eccentric Accretion Observed in a Neglected Interacting Binary Star
12:00 Group Photo and LUNCH (VU Astronomy Dept)
Session V. Geometry Chair: Bruce Hrivnak
13:30 John Wisniewski: Imaging Nearby Circumstellar Disks to Diagnose Young Exoplanets
14:00 Jamie Lomax: Constraining the Mass Loss Geometry of Beta Lyrae
14:20 Nick Elias: Full-Stokes Interferometric Imaging of Stars
14:50 Jason Sanborn/Bob Zavala: Optical Observations with Milliarcsecond Resolution of Stars, their Environments, and Companions
15:20 BREAK
Session VI. Extremes Chair:Nick Elias
15:40 Ron Kaitchuck: A Search for Exoplanets in Short-Period Binary Star Systems
16:20 Scott Engle: Cepheids
16:50 Larry DeWarf: The Alpha Cen System
17:20 Stan Owocki: Modeling Gamma-Ray Emission from High-Mass X-ray Binaries (INVITED)
18:00 ADJOURN
19:00 NOSTAGLIA DINNER: The Mixx
Friday August 12
9:00 Mitch Struble: Are the Einstein Crossing Times of Galactic Microlensing Events Bimodal?
Session VII. Instrumentation Chair: Mike Corcoran
9:30 Carol Ambruster+Tony Hull: Pierce-Blitzstein Dual Photometer
10:00 Bruce Holenstein+Rich Mitchell: Robert H. Koch's Work on Medium Aperture Mirrors
10:30 George Wolf+Bruce Holenstein: The Pennsylvania Polarimeters
11:00 BREAK
Session VIII. Memories of RHK Chair:Bruce Holenstein
11:20 Al Linnell: Amherst Days
11:50 Mitch Struble: RHK at Penn
12:10 Ken Lande: RHK at Penn
12:30 Jim Koch: RHK at Home
12:50 Ed Guinan: Closing Remarks
13:00 ADJOURN